Politics
Old habits die hard: The manifesto commitment to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels
Key Points
In just 16 years, a handful of food banks in the UK have proliferated into thousands of community-run food parcel distribution centres. In 2024, Labour’s election manifesto rightly referred to the need for these as a “moral scar on our society.” The party committed to ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels in the UK.1Two years later, the Labour government has made some steps towards this by scrapping the poverty inducing two child benefit limit and introducing new funding through...
In just 16 years, a handful of food banks in the UK have proliferated into thousands of community-run food parcel distribution centres. In 2024, Labour’s election manifesto rightly referred to the need for these as a “moral scar on our society.” The party committed to ending mass dependence on emergency food parcels in the UK.1Two years later, the Labour government has made some steps towards this by scrapping the poverty inducing two child benefit limit and introducing new funding through the Crisis and Resilience Fund (CRF). This fund paves the way for people in England to build long term financial resilience through cash first crisis payments and wraparound support through local community networks.2Against a backdrop of stubbornly high levels of food insecurity, emergency food parcel distribution figures in the UK are still 45% higher than before the covid pandemic.34 The cost of living crisis continues to ring alarm bells, so...